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Debate: Boy Scouts of America ban on gay membership doesn't have any content, but has gotten some news recently, as Texas Governor Rick Perry, and a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination was part of the Boy Scouts and supported their move to ban gay membership.

Debate: Voter identification cards has been hot in the news recently with multiple American states now requiring voter IDs. If you're interested, consider building up Debatepedia's article on the topi.

August 22nd.Debate: Law school was posted to the Debate Digest after multiple days of development.

August 15th.Debate: Slut Walks was created as a stub article in light of the phenomenon of Slut Walks spreading around the world. In India, a slut walk was organized that gained global media attention and some local condemnation. The aim of slut walks is to, by dressing in provocative clothing in mass, criticize the practice in some societies of men forcing women to dress ultra conservatively in order to prevent them from supposedly provoking men into fits of sexual excitement and subsequently sexual abuse (as if it was women's fault).

August 12th. New editor account creation was put on hold for a short period due to spamming attempts.

July 9th. Lavanya.Hero argued that teachers have an easier job working in single-sex schools because they don't have to worry about equal opportunity.

June 12th.Ace45954 made the following argument on Debate: Colonization of the Moon: "Moon base would spark public interest in Mars mission. The creation of a base on our small companion would spark the public's interest, as the creation of such a base would most likely take less than a decade. After this, wait perhaps another decade or so and viola, you have yourself a Mars landing. If we were instead to mount a mission to Mars directly, it would take decades before the mission would be underway. The general public despises long waits, which equals to a lack of funds completely immobilizing the would be Mars landing."

June 6th. Ggowdy1972 created the following argument against two-party systems: "Two-party systems create false dichotomies. By framing debate in terms of only two-parties or points of view the two-party system gives the false impression that their are only two choices on any given issue. the reality is that issues facing any country are deeply complex with multiple view points. This is particularly harmful when political parties begin to enforce ideological purity and shout down party dissent. [1]

May 17th. Jasonschantz wrote the following in favor of releasing Osama bin Laden's death photos: "Al-Qaeda will see withholding photos as sign of their impact. Why they released the death picture of Saddam but don't dare to release that of Osama's? The only reason is that Iraq is down but Al-Qaeda is still there, so their path of terrorism is effective. It is an encouragement to them."[2]

April 28th. The following comment was written on Debate: Term limits for legislators by Oscar Levant: We DO have 'term limits'.. they are called 'elections.' I'd rather my choices not be restricted by draconian obstacles which are, to be blunt, based on little more than a penchant for lazy thinking. There have been many elected officials whose best work has been done during terms that would not have existed if limits were imposed."

March 21st. E65Hawke wrote the following argument in favor of compulsory voting: "Voting is not only a right, but a responsibility. The whole point of freedom is that everyone has a say and has a responsibility to voice their opinion, otherwise the system doesn't work. non-compulsory voting encourages entire classes of people to not bother with voting, since it is demanding, having to stand in long queues all day. People should exercise their right and responsibility to vote."

February 25th. Debator101 added the following argument on Debate: European social democracy: "European social democracy has a higher value on health care. European social democratic countries, such as France or Great Britain, believe health is a basic neccessity. As such, European social democratic countries offer universal health care, resulting in higher life expectancies than industrialized nations without universal health care systems."

February 11th. FilmBuff84 wrote the following pro argument on Debate: Standardized Testing For Graduation: "Standardized testing is an objective measure of learning. All students deserve an equal chance to prove their competency. Testing weeds out those who are more likely to be poor academic performers in colleges and universities."

Halebobbdotcom commented on Talk:Debate: Legalization of drugs: "The only things that should remain illegal are actions against others. All torts should remain unlawful; All non-tort acts should be legalized."

Jamie86078 wrote the following on Talk:Debate: Merit pay for teachers: "One thing that could happen is foul play. Teachers may help kids to much with test, change actual answers given by students and strikes. Teachers may go on strike because they may think pay is unfair. Then what happens to our teachers. WHAT HAPPENS TO OUR COMMUNITY! No teachers to teach students! All merit pay will lead to is problems!"

January 15th. Kliewer2013 edited Debate: In some cases juveniles should be tried as adults. "Rights of juveniles. The adult justice system gives juveniles a jury, a proper judge, and good representation. The juvenile system however has no jury, the judge is over-worked along with the counsel provided."

January 13th. GetReal95 wrote the following argument on Debate: Deporting illegal immigrants in the US: Deporting illegals not akin to expulsion of Native American. You can not use the trail of tears as a acceptable and relevant argument. The topic is whether deporting illegals is moral. The cheeroke were legally aloud to be there but after losing a war, the U.S.A kicked them out. Illegal aliens have no ethical claim to remain.

January 9th.Myclob added the following argument to Debate: Should free, public universities be free to foreigners?: "Foreign students have not 'paid their dues'. College is expensive. Government can pay for education when they know the student will stay in the country, or their parents have paid taxes their whole lives, but foreign students might not stay, and have not paid."

January 3rd. Joe.salvan: "I believe the use of full-body scanners at airports are necessary to help prevent future attacks to our country. For those who complain about our rights being invaded, full-body scanners are unnecessary, or child pornography laws to name a few must not care or remember why we are implementing these security measures. Our country has been attacked and many Americans gave their life unknowingly. The protection of our country is necessary and to be delayed at the airport to ensure you or others are not a terrorist, hi-jacker or just someone wanting to do harm to others is necessary and should not be taken lightly."

December 2nd. Articles have arisen regarding the F-35 fighter jet and whether it's a good idea for the United States to continue to develop this expensive and advanced plane - given the US budget deficit and debt. Feel free to work on the debate article on the topic here: Debate: F-35 fighter jet.

November 10th. Rhoojung made the following argument against legalizing prostitution: "Considering that majority of men who visit prostitutes are married, this should be considered as morally wrong. It breaks harmony of the family and dooms the ethical aspect of the society."

November 4th. Spring 0119 made the following argument on Debate: Video games: "Video games are a great way to relax after school or work. They are good for people who feel tired after a long day of work or school. It is important that people take the time to relax and have fun in this way. It makes people happier as well as more productive when they do work."

October 27th. Editor Brooks Lindsay is overhauling all past featured articles on Debatepedia.org, creating argument pages for every major argument that has an accompanying quotation, thus making them searchable on the web, and opening up the possibility for talk-page discussion on these arguments.

October 18th. AmandaMcKay added the following argument to Debate: Condoms in schools: "If students in school are having sex they should have the option of having safe sex and they need to know the advantages of having safe sex."

August 20th. Renergy re-added (after it was deleted) the following argument to Debate: Nuclear energy: "Ill-informed public opinion the main obstacle for nuclear energy. The majority of the public consider nuclear power plants to be unsafe. They really are very safe, but the public opinion in countries currently not using nuclear power is predominantly against nuclear energy. The public opinion really is the only factor stopping nuclear energy coming into place globally."

August 9th. Alkus wrote on Debate: Would unmitigated climate change be catastrophic?: "Catastrophic, but not for all. Unmitigated climate change will certainly be catastrophic, but only for a relatively small percentage of the human population. To borrow a quote from the movie "Jurassic Park", life will find a way. A sufficient percentage of the human population will survive, and eventually thrive in the "New Biotic Order" of post-cataclysmic Earth to send the human species careening toward our next anthropogenic disaster."

August 1st. Lenkahabetinova wrote on Debate: Countries should ban the import of goods produced by child labor: "Trade and economic growth do not necessarily help. [Evidence from the Industrial Revolution suggests that] it is not inevitable that growth will drive child labour to the economic margins before rooting it out completely. As in the past, if associated with an unequal distribution of income and child-intensive production processes, economic growth can increase child labour rather than eliminate it." ["Child labour: lessons from the Industrial Revolution", by Jane Humphries, Centre for Economic Policy Research (VoxEU.org), April 2008.'"

July 23rd. Founder Brooks Lindsay is working on Debate: Open primaries for the Debate Digest. The topic has become particularly important in recent weeks after California passed Proposition 14 in early June, establishing Open Primaries in the state. Here's a New York Times article on the event and the topic.

July 21st. Richa has been adding instructions to the talk pages on argument pages so that users and editors better know what to do and how on these particularly pages.

July 19th. Rita-Bella. argued on Debate: Prisoners right to vote: "Prisoners are still citizens. It is common fact among government that the right to vote belongs to all legal aged citizens. While the opposing side may argue that criminals are not citizens one should remember that we continue to give them the right to an attorney and other such obvious inalienable rights. By doing this we recognize they are still citizens. And citizens have the right to vote."

July 4th. Rishabh edited Debate: Should plastic shopping bags be banned?, adding to the following argument: "There is an easy, practical replacement for plastic bags. The main use of plastic bags is to carry shopping in. Getting rid of plastic bags would just mean that we would need to find a replacement for them. That is easy - we just need to use reusable cloth bags or paper bags and that is the problem solved. Plastic bags do have a practical replacement. More than that Jute bags have emerged a successful replacement of plastic Jute bags.The Govt. of Himachal Pradesh (a hill state of India which also a tourist hot spot) has banned plastic completely for over 3 years now. The transition has proved successful and now shopping bags are more reusable sturdy and beneficial."

June 28th:User:Lenkahabetinova added the following pro argument to Debate: Fusion power: "Radiation risk is small. Calculations suggest that the total amount of tritium and other radioactive gases in a typical power plant would be so small, about 1 kg, that they would have diluted to legally acceptable limits by the time they blew as far as the plant's perimeter fence. "Fusion power", Wikipedia"

June 27th:Lenkahabetinova deleted a range of obsolete debate and argument pages.

June 16th:Lenkahabetinova has been cleaning up links on a wide swath of articles.

June 13th: Danicae13 added the following argument to Debate: Twitter : "Twitter is just a distraction. "TWEETING" what you're doing does not always make you appreciate more what you're doing. You'll get to enjoy what you're doing when you are with you're friends or family or a love one and not through tweeting. Besides, how can people be so sure that what the person tweeted is true or not. Once a person tweeted something it's out in the public and this could affect the privacy and even the security of a person. It will be publicize, what a person is doing, where a person is and the like. Plus not all of the topics in twitter are that academic and intellectual (such as Bustin Jieber, mini lady gaga and such). Tweeting can't add more appreciation to what a person is doing and it can even risk the security of a person."

Martzianu made the following argument on Debate: Is Internet access a human right?: "Internet access is no right, but means of entertainment. It enables individuals to acquire information and other activities. But is also harmful. How many nights have you stood in front of the PC surfing the net wildly or playing a game? Also there is a lot of free pornografic material that any child who can type his name using a keyboard can access them. Do you want to make a world when a mother tells her child: "you cannot stay on the internet anymore" that she has taken a right from him? Compare taking the right for a home or for education with taking the "right" to access the internet."

May 22nd: Lenkahabetinova added the following argument to Debate: Globalization: "On the whole, women have been harmed more than men by globalization. Structural adjustment programs often force countries in the developing world to streamline the economy and redirect spending away from social welfare and toward export sectors and other profit-yielding enterprises. This can lead to a reduction in or elimination of many social welfare programs such as health, food, and housing subsidies. Women on average are poorer than men and, as such, are the majority of those dependent on social welfare programs. Therefore, elimination or reduction in these programs affects them disproportionately to men."

May 20th: User:Lenkahabetinova continues excellent review of others' work via Recent Changes and has been organizing articles by categorizing them (by placing something like [[Category:Economics]] at the bottom of an article. In addition, she's been deleting inappropriate articles, or ones that don't qualify for existence on Debatepedia.org, like articles that are merely descriptions of a famous person and not debates.

May 19th: Cartoonhead5 added a number of quotes from the Quran to Debate: Does Islam promote violence?, supporting the pro side of the debate. The included: Qur'an 2:10: "In their hearts is a disease, and Allah increaseth their disease. A painful doom is theirs because they lie." Qur'an 98:6: "Verily those who believe not, among those who have received the scriptures, and among the idolaters, [shall be cast] into the fire of hell, to remain therein [for ever]. These are the worst of creatures."

Faltzer wrote on Debate: Gun control: "The idea of a criminal not messing with you if you have a firearm is flawed, and it is contradictory to the definition of concealed. To be concealed is to be out of visual reach; to not be seen. How exactly would an assailant know if the intended victim is carrying a concealed firearm?"

May 14th: ProCon wrote on Debate: Path to citizenship for illegal immigrants in the US: "Illegal immigrants do more harm than good; deport them. Illegal immigrants undoubtably bring many benefits to the US. However, they bring much more harm than good. They increase the poverty rate in the areas they live in. They most likely are a bad influence on the Americans they live near with. They come to the US illegally and beg for legal citizenship so they can get rights they don't deserve. They came to here illegally and want citizenship so that they can have rights and abuse the US system. They decrease the morale of the parts they live in because of discrimination and also because of the suspicion, the fear they bring in because of their image of being criminals and drug dealers. Why should we grant them citizenship when they're here first illegaly?"

May 13th: On Debate: Abortion: In response to the idea of abortion being a way to protect a child from an adverse upbringing, Christinahahn94 wrote, "The child's life is being taken away. His or her life is gone before he or she has gotten a chance to live. That is the ultimate injustice, hazard."

Helala documented a number of argument quotes on Debate: Climate change mitigation vs adaptation, including: "The Stern Review argues that mitigation is economically efficient. ". HM Treasury. 14 April. 2009 - "The Review estimates the annual costs of stabilisation at 500-550ppm CO2e to be around 1% of GDP by 2050 - a level that is significant but manageable."... "BAU (business as usual) climate change will reduce welfare by an amount equivalent to a reduction in consumption per head of between 5 and 20%."

May 4th: Fajar edited Debate: Gay adoption, laying out the argument that some religions have rules laying out that homosexuality is not healthy and therefore that gay adoption is not healthy.

Penwen360: On Debate: Compulsory voting: "Even if enforceable, compulsory voting causes anti-govt feelings. Democracy is based on the freewill of the individual. Enforcing participation invalidates this."

April 25th: Andrdfry added the following argument to Debate: Women in combat: "Russia used women in many different battles during WWII and saw great things with the all female unites. The problem was not about the female unites though. The problem was with the male unites around the female unites had the lowest morale out of all the unites. Seeing women injured or killed made many unites lose complete control."

April 25th: Andrdfry added the following argument to Debate: Women in combat: "Russia used women in many different battles during WWII and saw great things with the all female unites. The problem was not about the female unites though. The problem was with the male unites around the female unites had the lowest morale out of all the unites. Seeing women injured or killed made many unites lose complete control."

Voltaire wrote the following argument on Debate: Graduated response antipiracy laws: "Enforcing copyright law online is simply infeasible. Copyright violations are numerous. Many don't even know that they're breaking the law. Even more don't care. Copyright violations is a huge problem, but trying to tackle is like trying to tackle the problem of drugs. It's impossible, and we let the problem balloon up even before we knew what the problem was. Monitoring everybody in the internet is one thing, trying to stop them from violating copyrights is another. Too expensive, too wasteful, too huge. The money and resources spent on tackling this problem by graduated antipiracy response laws would be better spent on creating more jobs, and fighting terrorists in the Middle East."

April 17th: Lenkahabetinova added the following argument to Debate: China "one child" policy: "China's "one child" policy causes "gendercide". According to The Economist [4], at least 100 million girls have disappeared in China. They were either "aborted, killed, or neglected to death"- and the number is rising. "...[C]ouples want two children—or, as in China, are allowed only one—they will sacrifice unborn daughters to their pursuit of a son. That is why sex ratios are most distorted in the modern, open parts of China and India."

April 5th: Ruth wrote the following on Debate: Was the world created in six days?: "God did create in six days literally. He is God after all, don't you think He is supposed to be that good? For some reason people don't want to believe it because according to us, it is impossible. Fact is, God can do all things, even those things that seem impossible to us."

April 4th: Sjdixon wrote the following argument on Debate: Google decision to stop censoring results in China: "Google's decision to step out of China has reduced access to free and fair information. An important consequence of the Google search engine is that it is possible to look up information on an extremely diverse range of topics in a short amount of time. By withdrawing from China, Google reduces the opportunity for individuals to find relevant information. Consequently, individuals have less information to make important decisions regarding economic transactions, and form independent opinions on political, social, or human rights issues."

April 2nd: Lenkahabetinova wrote on Debate: Ban on advertising: "Advertising curbs imperfect information. Advertising curbs imperfect information. Advertising is necessary for consumers, as it not only promotes new products, but it also provides essential information. Imperfect information can result in market failure, therefore anything that limits it should be encouraged."

April 1st: TheDream245 wrote on the discussion page of Debate: Condoms in schools: "YES Because most teens today dont get the proper talk about safe sex and how protection is the best way to go...."

March 29th: Browneyedlady made the following comment on Talk:Debate: Legalization of Marijuana: "IN THE BIBLE (GENESIS 1;29-30) GOD HAS SAID HERE I HAVE GIVEN TO YOU ALL VEGETATION BEARING SEED WHICH IS ON THE SURFACE OF THE WHOLE EARTH AND EVERY TREE ON WHICH THERE IS THE FRUIT OF A TREE BEARING SEED TO YOU LET IT SERVE AS FOOD. AND TO EVERY WILD BEAST OF THE EARTH AND TO EVERY FLYING CREATURE OF THE HEAVENS AND TO EVERY THING MOVING UPON THE EARTH IN WHICH THERE IS LIFE AS A SOUL I HAVE GIVEN ALL GREEN VEGETATION FOR FOOD."

March 27th: Rmjharris outlined the following argument on Debate: Abortion: " Abortion may be immoral, but it is still a woman's right Norval Morris and Gordon Hawkins, The Honest Politician's Guide to Crime Control, 1970: "Abortion may be sinful or immoral, but it is not the function of the law to enforce the whole of morality. It is difficult to understand what religious or moral principle, what divine or human purpose, is served by compelling underprivileged women to undergo pregnancy for the full term and to bear unsought and frequently unwanted children or to risk sickness or death at the hands of incompetent and frequently lecherous and importunate abortionists. No doubt the fact that the price of maintaining this principle is paid almost exclusively by the poor has delayed its critical examination."[5]

March 25th: Sholek wrote the following argument/comment on Talk:Debate:TV does more harm than good: "Television Does More Harm Than Good. Rather than increasing the educational channels, television are promoting harmful programs such as violence, sexual activities and also drugs. Television promotes harmful programs rather than focusing on education."

March 24th: Concluding site-wide effort to make it clearer how to comment on the discussion pages that come with every article. (See the "discussion" tab at the top of every article).

March 22nd: Rohan G outlined on Debate: Death penalty the following argument: "Wrongful convictions do not mean that the system is wrong. It is true that occasionally people are wrongly executed under the capital punishment. However, this does not mean that the death penalty should be abolished. Rather, it means that suspects should be scrutinized more closely."

March 21st: Lenkahabetinova has been helping post the following message to talk pages in order to make it easier for users to understand what they can do: "Click on the '+' tab above to add a comment, or just click 'edit'. Sign your comment by writing "~~~~" at the end. Join us on Facebook for broader community discussion."

March 20th: TeaCii wrote on Debate: Crime cameras: "Inexpensive camera viewing services are availalable. There are professional services which provide very inexpensive camera viewing over the internet. This is a serious option for people who cannot view their own cameras 24x7 but still would like the service. Check out."Virtual Video Guard

March 19th: Debate: War on Drugs was posted to the Debate Digest. It was left, though, with many sections blank or under-developed in order to give other users a greater opportunity to write and document arguments."

March 16th: JusticeForAll. made an extensive argument on Talk:Debate: Gay marriage. "To understand Christ's view on marriage, it is worthwhile to consider his own words. In particular Matthew 19 which covers Christs general notes on marriage and divorce. Matthew 19:12: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2019:12&version=KJV "For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it." In Christs day, the Greek word Eunukos was used for gay people. The same word is used in Daniel 1:4-9 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=daniel%201:4-9&version=KJV which concludes "Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. [...] So why do so-called "Christians" use out of context passages to punish innocent taxpaying citizens for what they are? Certainly Christ himself would be "rolling over in his grave" to see this type of behavior. Or perhaps it is simply a test of who understands the Word, and who doesn't."

March 6th. Lenkahabetinova. added the following argument to Debate: Trade vs aid: "Free trade benefits developing countries more than protectionism. People naturally want to trade with each other, seeking to turn their particular resources or skills to their advantage. All too often trade is limited not because government action is needed, but because the government actually gets in the way with restrictive rules and statist controls. For example, regardless of their terms of trade with developed nations, developing countries could all become more prosperous if they removed the barriers they have erected to trade with each other. Putting the emphasis on trade rather than aid redirects attention from what developed states should or could be doing for the developing world, to what developing countries can and should do for themselves."

March 1-5: Debate: Gay marriage was built-out on Debatepedia for the Debate Digest. It is the most comprehensive pro/con article available on the topic, representing a major achievement and contribution to this historic controversy and settling it.

March 2: Suzy argued against Kangaroo culling in Australia on the basis that Kangaroos are native to Australia, living in harmony with the environment, and that it is unfair to kill them for not cooperating with unnatural farmland.

February 25th/26th: Debate: Gay marriage became the focus of efforts on Debatepedia, in an initiative to make it into the next Debate Digest article. This will be accompanied by efforts across all the.

February 17th: Salman2135: edited an argument on Civil unions vs. gay marriage: "Civil unions still 'separate, but equal' if straights can do it. The idea that opening civil unions to straights solves the problem of civil unions be "separate, but unequal" fails a very simple test. While heterosexuals may have equal access to civil unions, do gays have equal access to marriage? No. Clearly, therefore, allowing straights to participate in civil unions while continuing to deny gays the right to marry does not nullify the argument that civil unions are akin to "separate but equal" and actually unequal."

February 15th: JZ outlined on Debate: Vegetarianism the following argument: "A strictly vegetarian diet can promote health problems. Humans with vegetarian diets are more likely to suffer from fatigue, apathetic behavior, and a lack of concentration. These could negatively affect proficiency in school and the ability to perform well at the site of someone's profession. Other conditions include frequently becoming ill, frequently becoming depressed, and malnourishment."

February 13th: Legoktm Added a sentence to the argument "Capitalism fosters, does not prevent, charity" on Debate: Capitalism vs socialism, writing "Some examples of rich people who donated to charity are Bill Gates, Oprah, and others."

February 10th: Lenkahabetinova has been overhauling Debate: Gay marriage, which has needed attention for months. The article has received over 60,000 page views in-counting, and thus justifies an extensive effort on the part of Debatepedia's community to improve the article (if you feel like helping out! :) ).

February 8th: Work is being done on two debate articles in particular: Debate: Capitalism vs socialism and Debate: Corporate personhood. The second debate follows the controversy surrounding the US Supreme Court's Citizens United vs Federal Election Commission ruling which ruled in favor of giving corporations rights such as the right to free speech, which allows them to spend unlimited amounts of money on campaign ads, with the defense of "free speech".

January 28th: Voltaire outlined on Debate: Capitalism vs socialism, "Socialism has control, unlike capitalism. Socialist economies are very well planned and has control over all the industries, thus providing a guiding hand in building and contstructing its economy. A government wants its country to succeed, however a corpo

January 26th: Voltaire outlined the following argument on Debate: Big government: Big govenment = Big growth. Throughout history, there were several big, liberal governments. Peter the Great (Russia), Catherine the Great (Russia), FDR (US), Park-Chung-Hee (South Korea), Sejong the Great (South Korea), Elizabeth the First (Britain), among other leaders. Under these leaders, the country they governed reached great economic growth. For example, look at Park-Chung-Hee of South Korea. Although a military dictator, he funneled growth by government leadership. He sharpened the industrial sector, began ordering production, and spent taxpayer's money on expanding the economy. Now, look at South Korea. It's one of the finest success stories in the world. South Korea was turned from a devastated, farming, poor country into the 13th largest economy in 3 decades. There is overwhelming evidence that big, liberal governments help improve the economy dramatically."

January 24th: Sleepless edited Debate: "Under God" in the American Pledge of Allegiance, outlining the following argument: added the argument: "Testing demonstrates 'under God' is not secular. For a religious person to understand the impact of this phrase, one can hypothetically propose a slight change. Introduce the phrase 'Under Godess' a phrase that would be compatible with some religions. Most religious people would take offense to such a change, on the grounds that you would be warping the minds of the young people who have to say this every day. If it is true that the phrase 'Under God' is not to be construed as a religious ceremony, then what difference would changing this to 'Goddess' make? Clearly, those who believe in a Goddess, would be offended by the current phrase, and this does not preserve the proper separation of church and state."

January 24th: Jambaugh outlined on Debate: Communism the argument that "common ownership of the means of production is impossible: Ownership is control. The means of production will not be plentiful enough that all who choose to utilize it will have it available. Someone will need to decide who is granted access to the means and who is not worthy. That someone is the true owner of the means of production. Note that the same is true in capitalistic corporations. Nominally the share-holders own the company collectively but it is the executive board who controls it."

January 23rd: HeisenbergUncertainty outlined an argument in the "economics" section of Debate: Full-body scanners at airports which read: "A Human Life is priceless." This was refined by Lenkahabetinova to read "The price of a human life is incalculable." The point being that the economic cost of implementing a full-body scanner may pail in comparison to the value of the human life it may save.

January 22nd: HeisenbergUncertainty outlined an argument against gun control, noting that "The 2008 Supreme Court Case of District of Columbia v. Heller affirmed the earlier D.C. Appeals Court case of Parker v. District of Columbia, which determined that handguns qualify as, and should thus be considered as, "arms" under the Second Amendment."

January 21st: 78.monkeys outlined the following argument on Debate: Year-round school: "Year-round schooling offers three month-long breaks. Instead of having summer break for 3 months year long school would have school for 3 months and a month of break. Students that like winter sports will have a chance to play them. Students that like summer sports they will be able to swim too. Every body is happy...."

January 20th: DominekB and Founder Brooks Lindsay have been working on the case for Debate: Lobbying. The case against it needs to be developed as well if anybody would like to give this a try.

September 24th: Scientists recently found signs of significant quantifies of water or hydroxyl on the moon. Does this change the debate over a moonbase? Somebody could help write this argument, that these discoveries make colonization more logical.

September 16th: Renergy continues fixing redirects all across articles on Debatepedia.

June 11th, Brooks Lindsay has been finishing up a major categorization project for all roughly 1,500 debate articles on Debatepedia. This effort can be viewed on the main page of Debatepedia in the Category Browser on the left side of the page.

June 8th, Gwats made a well-structured argument in favor of allowing priests to marry, on Debate: Should Catholic priests be allowed to marry?: "priests should be allowed to marry for the simple reason that we all have the right to procreate and leave a progeny, a legacy when we leave this world."

June 8th, Ijeh78 argued on Debate: Animal rights: "It is necessary for humans to use animals as a source of food. There is a hierarchy in the natural world, and some living beings have more value than others. Human beings are more valuable than animals, therefore, it is justified that human beings use animals as a source of food and material."

Jpfeiffer419, on June 3rd, made the following pro-choice argument on Debate: Abortion: "In a free society, abortion is truly a matter of personal belief. The issue of abortion debates the question of whether or not the unborn child is a human being, or at what point it becomes so. This question cannot be answered for the collective body of society, rather should be answered by the individual based on personal and religious beliefs. If an individual believes that an unborn child is a human being, then the "right to life" term can be justified by that individual for their own personal choice. If an individual believes that the unborn child is not a human being, then there is no justification for laws to prohibiting an abortion. Therefore It should be argued that this is an issue for the individual; that an individual seeking an abortion has their own responsibility to be informed thoroughly about the matter, but should never be forced to agree or disagree."

Mh332890 argued the following on Debate: Should war be televised? on June 1st: "Televised war can create a misconceived notion of war. As the mainstram media today tend to paint the picture to entertain, rather than to inform. The images, clips and sounds undergo heavy editing before being presented to the viewers. Often these medium do not represent the grisly, cruel nature of war accurately. Instead, the clips are meant to stimulate a sense of heroism, of glory and patriotism, immersing the viewers in a videogame-like atmosphere, perhaps making wars look more acceptable."

WestCoast argued on May 30th on Debate: Is a nuclear-armed North Korea unacceptable?, "Although totalitarian, North Korea is still a rational actor. Despite the fact that the North Korean leadership has not looked after the basic needs of its own people, it has consistently acted to ensure it retains control over the country. Carrying out an aggressive nuclear strike against another nation is therefore not in the interest of the state, as such an action will dramatically increase the willingness of the international community to enact regime change through military action."

Whitefreak121 helped outline, on May 29th, the following argument on Debate: Ban on smoking in public places: "Banning smoking in public would cause people to smoke more at home. Heavy smokers are unlikely to give up since they are addicted to nicotine. Banning smoking in public will, therefore, only encourage people to smoke more at home. This will harm other people in their houses, particularly children. This is important, since children are not old enough to choose freely to smoke passively. Also, people smoking at home may drink more alcohol than they would if they went to a bar. This is because they can buy it more cheaply at a supermarket or off-license. Drinking more alcohol may lead to other health problems."

DharmaLion made the following argument in favor of Debate: Legalization of adult incest on May 13th: "there is no defined power relationship--in any other aspect of life--between a father and adult daughter or between a mother and adult son. As they are legally equals in all other aspects of life there is no reason to treat them as anything other than equals in the area of sexuality."

Thomas J. Mason outlined the following argument on Debate: Gay marriage on April 20th - "Gay marriage is unacceptable because it is not private. If two people choose to engage in this behavior behind closed doors, society should remain agnostic. However, when this behavior (like other aberrant behaviors), is championed as normal, natural, and a matter of 'freedom' (as opposed to license), society has an obligation to protect children during their formative years and denounce these acts."

Slim husband wrote the following argument on Debate: Prostitution on April 19th: "it is not difficult to decipher who the victims of prostitution are. just about everybody involved in this debate has assumed that prostitute denotes 'woman' and inform their arguments with this preconception. Is this because women choose to sell their bodies and men do not? Despite intellectual reasoning and rhetoric, we all know that it is primarily women who are exploited; we all subconsciously know through an understanding of the cultural history we've inherited -patriarchy- that it is women who do and will suffer."

KateE created, on April 15th, Direct to consumer prescription drug advertisements, seeding it with a background section and the following con argument: "Many ads don't include enough information on how well drugs work. For example, Lunesta is advertised by a moth floating through a bedroom window, above a peacefully sleeping person. Actually, Lunesta helps patients sleep 15 minutes faster after six months of treatment and gives 37 minutes more sleep per night. The Majority of ads are based on emotional appeals, but few include causes of the condition, risk factors, ore important lifestyle changes. In a studyof 38 pharmaceutical advertisements researchers found that 82 percent made a factual claim and 86 percent made rational arguments for product use. Only 26 percent described condition causes, risk factors, or prevalence."

Psychopathicgenius outlined the following argument on "Nigger", use of the word - "White people should be able to use it, but realistically they can't use it first. It has to start with the people who get offended by it. Black people have to use this word towards white people the same way they use towards their own. It is already belived that if a white person says it they're racist so it has to start from the interior. Black people have to start acknowldeging white people as niggers for the word to lose its racial potency."